The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-06-29

through the trees gets momentary sight |
# a partridge or roebuck. The trouble |
s, we are waiting for the game 70 come to /
Is We are not good hunters. We are
standing in Schermerhorn street, expect
ng that the timid antelope viii come up
md eat out of our hand. We are expect
ng that the prairie fowl viii light on our
;hurch steeple. 1t is nOs their habit. If
the church should wait 10000, 600 Of
years for the world to come in and be
saved, it will wait in vain. The world
VIII not come. What the church wants
now is to lift their feet from damask otto
mans, and put them in the stirrups. We
want a pulpit on wheels. The church
wants not so much cushions as it wants
saddle bags and arrows. We have got to
put aside the gown and the kid gloves,
and put on the hunting shirt. We have
been fishing so long in the brooks that
run under the shadow Of the church that
the fish know US, and they avoid the hook
and escape as soon as we come to
the bank, while yonder is Upper Saranac
and Big Tupper's lake, where the first
swing of the gospel net would break it
for the multitude of the fishes. There is
outside work to be done What is that l
see in the backwoods2 It is a tent. The
hunters have made a clearing and camped
out What do they care if they have wet
feet, or if they have nothing but a pine
branch for a pillow or for the northeast
storm? If a moose in the darkness steps
into the lake 10 drink, they hear it right
away. If a loon cry in the midnight,
they hear it. So in the service Of God we
have exposed work. We have got to camp
ont and rough it. We are putting all our
care on the 10000 people Of Brooklyn,
70 ri
are we doing for the 700, 600 that do not
Gomez Have they no souls? Are they
sinless that they need no pardon'
Are there no dead in their houses
that they need no comfort? Are they cut
off from God, to go into eternity-no wing
to bear them, no light to cheer them, no
welcome to greet theml ] hear today
surging up from the lower depths Of
Brooklyn a grOan that comes through our
Christian assemblages and through our
Christian churches; and it blots out all
this scene from my eyes today, as by the
nists of a great Niagara, for the dash and
the plunge of these great torrents of life
dropping down into the fathomless and
laundering abyss Of suffering and woe. [
sometimes think that, just as God blotted
out the church of Thyatira and Corinth
and Laodicea, because of their sloth and
stolidity, he VIII blot out American and
English Christianity and raise on the
ruins stalwart, wide awake missionary
church, that can take the full meaning Of
that command: GO into all the world and
preach the Gospel to every creature. He
that believeth and is baptized shall be
saved. and he that beleveth not shall be
damned
Iremark, further, if you want to sue
ceed in Gospel hunting, you must have
courage. If the hunter stand with trem-
bling hand or shoulder that tlinches with
fear, instead Of his taking the catamount,
the catamount takes him. What would
become Of the Greenlander it, when out
hunting for the bear, he should stand
shivcring with terror on an iceberg? What
would have become ofs)u Chaillu and Liv-
ingstone in the African thicket, with q
faint heart and a weak knee? When a
panther comes within twenty PAGES Of
you, and il has its eyes on you, and it has
squatted for the fearful spring, STEADY
there"
Courage, 0 ye spiritual hunters There
are great monsters OF iniquity prOwling
around about the community. Shall we
not in the strength of God go forth and
combat them? We not only need more
heart, but more backbone What is the
Church Of God that it should fear to look
in the eye any transgression? There is
the Bengal tiger of drunkenness that
prowls around, and instead Of attacking
it, how many of us hide under the church
pew or the communion table? There is
so much invested in it we are afraid to
assault it; millions of dollars in barrels,
In watts, in spigots, in corkscrews, in cir
palaces with marble floors and Italian tor
f,1,1 ,la g0a .Is,.c, to H.
strychnine, and the logwood, and the tar
taric acid, and the nuX vomica, that go t.
make up our 'pure" American drinks
l looked with wondering eyes ON The
'FHeidelberg tun." 1t is the great liquor
vat of Germany, which is said to hold S0t
hogsheads of wine, and only three times
in 100 years has it been filed. But, as
stood and looked at it, l said to myself
''That is nothng-S00 hogsheads. Why
our American vat holds 4, 800, 600 barrel!
of strong drinks, and we keep 300, 900 mel
with nothing to do but to see that it il
filled" Oh, to attack this great monstel
of intemperance, and the kindred mon
sters of fraud and uncleanness, requires
you to rally all your Christian courage
Through the press, through the pulpit
through the platform, You must assault
it. Would to God that all our American
Christians would band together, not fol
crack Drained fanaticism, but for holy
Christian reform. l think it was in 179;
that there went out from Lucknow, India
under the sovereign, the greatest hunting
| party that was ever projected. There were
| 10000 armed men in that hunting party
There were camels, and horses, and ele
| plants. On some princes rode, and roya
ladies, under exquisite housings, and 50(
coolies waited upon the train, and tht
| desolate places of India were invaded by
| this excursion, and the rhinoceros, anC
deer, and elephant, fell under the stroke
of the saber and bullet After a while
| the party brought back trophies wortl
fifty thousand rupees, having left tht
| wilderness of India CHASTITY with the slaiI
| bodies of wild beasts. Would to Coo
that instead of here and there a stragglel
| going out to fight these great monsters o
iniquity in our country, the million mem
bership of our churches would band to
| gether and hew in twain these grea
crimes that make the land frightful witt
| their roar, and are fattening upon th'
bodies and souls of immortal men. Wht
is ready for such party as that? Wh'
will be a mighty hunter for the Lord?
/ remark again: If you want to be sue
cessful in spiritual hunting, you need no
| only to bring down the game, but brins
it in. think one of the most beautiful
| pictures of Thorwaldsen is his Autumn.
1t represents a sportsman coming homt
and standing under grapevine. He has
a staff over his shoulder, and on the othe
| end of that staff are hung a rabbi
and brace of birds. Every hun
ter brings home the game. n,
| one would think of bringins
down a reindeer or whipping VI
stream for trout, and letting them lie il
the woods. AT eventide the camp i
adorned with the treasures of the forest
beak and fin and antler.
If you go out to hunt for immorta
souls, not only bring them down unde
| the arrow of the gospel, but bring then
into the church of God, the grand hom
and encampment we have pitched thi
side the skies. Fetch them in; do not le
them lie out in the open field. They neet
our prayers, and sympathies, and help
/ That is the meaning of the church of Got
help. . ye hunters for the Lord
not only bring down the game, but brins
it in.
If Mithridates liked hunting so vel
that for seven years he never went in
doors, what enthusiasm ought we to hav,
who are hunting for immortal souls? 1
| Domitian practiced archery until he coult
| stand boy down in the Roman amphi
| theatre, with hand out, the fingers out
| stretched, and then the king could shoe
an arrow between the fingers withou
wounding them, to what drill and prac
tice ought not we to subject ourselves il
order to become spiritual archers AM
"mighty hunters before the Lordr' Blu
let me say you viii never work any bette
than you pray. The old archers took TIL
bow, put one end of it down beside tn,
foot, elevated the other end, and it wa
| the rule that the bow should be Just tn,
size of the archer; if it We're just his size
then he would go into the battle with con
fidence. Let me say that your power t,
project good in the world viii correspond
exactly to your own spiritual stature. Il
other words, the first thing in preparation
for Christian work is personal consecra